Pass (on) the Salt
Herald-Sun
March 27, 2005

By Edward M. Eveld, Knight Ridder

Kansas City, Mo. -- Admit it.

You stopped worrying about salt. Who can blame you? In terms of food intake, you've been keeping a watchful eye on calories while counting carbs and trying to figure out where all those bad trans fats are hiding.

But a nutrition watchdog group has decided that most of us need a refresher course on sodium, and dieticians agree. Between eating out and buying just about any non-raw food item at the supermarket, we're swimming in sodium.

You might be proud of all those choices in your shopping cart because they're happy with fiber or calcium or vitamins! Some are free of fat molecules. Take a look at the sodium count on the nutrition label, however, and the salt news probably isn't good.

It doesn't take many servings of this stuff to sour past the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams, which is about a teaspoon. Too much salt means an increased risk of high blood pressure.

"If people use the food labels, they'll be surprised," said registered dietician Sandy Procter with Kansas State Extension and Research. Surprised that salt is in places where it has no dietary business. "It's added because it's inexpensive and we've developed a taste for it."

Recently the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group in Washington, sued the Food and Drug Administration to force a crackdown on the amount of sodium in processed food. By defining salt as a "food additive," the organization said, the FDA would have more regulatory authority to limit it.

Some think the advocacy group is more a fearmonger than a watchdog. This is the organization that pointed out several years ago that movie popcorn and Chinese food are crammed with calories and fat.

Saltified groceries are less obvious and more difficult to avoid. Ann Chapman, registered dietician at University of Kansas, said store-bought bread is a good example.

Two slices of Earth Grains wheat bread, the package of which trumpets its calcium and notes its lack of trans fats, contains 430 milligrams of sodium. That's nearly 20 percent of the sodium you need all day and from a source not thought of a as salty.

None of this is to say that salt should be banished. In fact, it's essential to good health. Calibrating the right amount is the issue and right now the average American eats too much, somewhere in the 3,000 to 4,000 milligrams range. And while the recommended limit is 2,300 milligrams, some middle age and older people are told by their doctors to shoot for 1,500 milligrams.

Getting enough potassium, nutritionists say, might held blunt the effects of too much sodium. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a good source.

Salty Excess

Here are some tips to help you keep your milligrams under control.

- Don't touch the saltshaker.
- Examine recipes and cut the salt in half or eliminate it altogether.
- Use spices to flavor meat and vegetables.
- Avoid or cut back on salty snacks, including chips and salted nuts or buy no-salt varieties.
- Try the DASH Eating Plan -- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension -- recommended by the National Institutes of Health at nhlbi.nih.gov.
- Look for low-salt or no-salt alternatives. Some dieticians recommend the Healthy Choice brand.
- Cook with fresh ingredients. Steaming fresh vegetables doesn't take much time.
- If you can't use fresh vegetables, use frozen. Rinsing canned vegetables might help.
- Choose food high in potassium to counteract the effects of excess sodium.
- When eating out, the rule of thumb is "the plainer the better."

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